CAMP VICTORY, Kuwait, March 7 â€” The Army was supposed to begin unloading its combat helicopters this morning from a cargo ship that had arrived in the Kuwaiti port. Instead, hundreds of soldiers sat in this desert camp, waiting for their own tents to land.

The wind rose late Thursday night and blew in a stinging rage for hours, with gusts of over 70 miles an hour. The dry but ferocious storm stopped the scheduled landing of the cargo ship Dahl, which had sailed from Jacksonville, Fla., with the Blackhawk, Chinook, Apache and Kiowa helicopters used by the 101st Airborne Division.

In this desert military camp about an hour outside Kuwait City, the gusts destroyed 17 tents, ripping them apart or blowing them to the sandy horizon, where they were swallowed without a trace. Some of the tents, which hold about 60 soldiers each, were occupied when they were blown off the ground, so many soldiers ended...